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EXERCISE 3: GENERAL STRENGTH: HIGH-BENCH STEP-UPS
Perform this exercise twice a week after you have warmed up thoroughly.

Begin from a standing position on top of a bench that is approximately knee high, with your body weight on your left foot and your weight shifted toward the left heel. The right foot should be free and held slightly behind your body. Lower your body in a controlled manner until the toes of the right foot touch the ground, but support all of your weight on your left foot. Return to the starting position by driving down with the left heel and straightening your left leg. Maintain an absolutely upright body posture with your trunk throughout the entire movement, with your hands held at your sides.

Perform this exercise for two sets of 10-15 repetitions with each leg. You can make the step-ups progressively more difficult by holding dumbbells in your hands as your perform the exercise (start with three to five pounds and gradually increase to 25 pounds) - and by gradually increasing the height of the step. Increase the height of the step by no more than two inches from workout to workout. Of course, you can eventually add on additional reps and sets as well - and increase your overall speed of movement.

If you are a devoted follower of Peak Performance, you may have noticed with some surprise that we called the bicycle swings a specific strength exercise for the hamstrings - and labelled the high-bench step-ups a general hamstring-strengthening activity. Since the high-bench step-ups force the hamstrings to exert force while they are in a weight-bearing mode, while the bicycle swings call for hamstring action when the hams aren't bearing any weight, shouldn't that be the other way around? The high-bench step-ups seem more specific to the act of running, which of course was a weight-bearing activity the last time we checked.

To understand why we have labelled the exercises this way, think about this question: do hamstring injuries occur more often when the leg to be injured is actually weight bearing, or when that leg is in the air (during the swing phase of the gait cycle). To put it another way, is a typical hamstring injury a 'closed-chain' or 'open-chain' event?

The full answer is probably both, but most hamstring injuries probably occur as a result of an open-chain (non-weight-bearing) problem. As we have mentioned, the key problem is that the thigh swings forward repetitively during running while the hamstrings are becoming more and more fatigued; the hamstrings in fact have to control this forward swinging, yet they become too fatigued to properly handle this forward-pulling, eccentric action (ie, the strain on the hamstrings during the swing phase of the gait cycle becomes greater than the strain the hams can withstand without getting hurt). As we mentioned, fatigue is not a necessary factor, but it certainly helps. If the hams are not fatigued, they may still be over-stressed early in workouts or races by explosive and expansive strides which also place too much strain on the hams during swing.

Thus, the 'swing' exercises described above are designed to strengthen the hamstrings during the swing phase of gait by manipulating and increasing the speed, range of motion, and resistance that the hamstrings must properly handle while the leg is off the ground. These exercises are specific to the action during which the hamstrings are most often injured. Meanwhile, the high-bench step-ups strengthen the hamstrings during weight-bearing movement, but since this is not the specific time when most hamstring injuries occur, we label the step-ups a general strengthening activity for the hams.

EXERCISE 4: POST-TRAINING EXERCISE: THE STANDING ISOMETRIC HAMSTRING STRETCH
Perform the following stretch at the end of your training session. You should not be overly fatigued when using this stretch, so incorporate it into workout sessions that are not overly difficult. The standing isometric hamstring stretch should be performed twice a week if you don't have a hamstring problem and three times a week if you are currently rehabilitating a hamstring injury.

Begin by standing with your weight fully supported on your left leg (you may place your right hand on a wall or other support to maintain your balance). Then, place your right heel on a chair, table, or other similar support in front of you. The height of this supporting structure should be somewhere between your knee and hip; the more flexible you are, the higher the support can be. Your right knee should be extended so that your right leg is straight. With your shoulders and chest facing straight ahead (towards your extended right leg), attempt to move your navel as close to your right knee as you can - until you feel a strong (but not painful) stretch in your right hamstrings.

At this point, you are ready to begin the isometric portion of the stretch. Starting gradually, attempt to push your right heel down towards the floor by contracting your right buttock, hip, and hamstring muscles for a count of six to eight seconds. This contraction should start gradually and build to close to maximal effort by the fourth second or so. Allow your muscles to relax completely for a few seconds after the contraction, and then again attempt to move your navel a little closer to your right knee. Repeat this sequence: isometric contraction - move closer to knee - isometric contraction - move closer to knee - at least three to five times before performing the entire sequence with the other leg. Rest for a short period, and then repeat with both legs. These isometric hamstring stretches will take you no more than five to six minutes to perform.

Pull bounding
Yet another way to improve the strength and dynamic mobility of the hamstrings is to perform some exaggerated pull bounding. To do this, warm up with at least 10 minutes of relaxed jogging, and then - on a gym floor or smooth grassy surface - bound quickly for about 30 to 40 metres, emphasizing longer-than-usual - but also very quick - strides. During these exaggerated pull bounds, you should focus on both increasing the forward swing of each leg (hip flexion) and also the backward pull (hip extension) of each leg once the foot has hit the ground. By doing so, you are increasing hip (and thus hamstring) range of motion, fostering the ability of the hamstrings to withstand injury-producing forward-swing forces, and also increasing hamstring strength. Progress your exaggerated pull bounding by increasing the number of reps (start with just three to four 30- to 40-metre reps), by expanding the length of the reps (to 100 metres or so), by upgrading your speed of movement, and by then moving the venue for the pull bounds from a flat, forgiving surface to a hill of moderate steepness.

Another progression, of course, would be to move from pull bounding to exaggerated pull hopping. This exercise proceeds exactly the same as pull bounding, except that you remain on one leg for the full duration of a repetition (staying on one leg will dramatically improve the fatigue-resistance of your hamstrings). Begin with 10-metre reps and gradually increase to 50 metres (the pull hops may also be performed on a hill).

Yet another way to increase the fatigue-resistance of your hamstrings, especially if you are planning to run a marathon, is to challenge your hamstrings when they are already in a somewhat fatigued state (obviously, this challenge must not be great enough to injure your precious hams in the process). As you get ready for the marathon, one way to vanquish hamstring fatigue (in addition to carrying out the exercises described above) is to change the nature of your long runs. Instead of merely ambling along for 20 to 22 miles at slower than goal marathon pace, run 15 miles moderately - and then click off five to six miles or so at your goal speed, the one you hope to sustain on your big day. Doing this several times during your pre-marathon build-up will increase the ability of your hamstrings to handle the late-race pressures and strains which can damage less adequately prepared 'strings. After you have completed several of these marathon-specific runs, your hamstrings will have enough fortitude to lower their risk of trouble in late stages of the race.

If you have had hamstring problems in the past, you are at significantly greater risk for hamstring troubles in the future, compared to athletes who have been free of hamstring trouble. If your hamstrings haven't given you too much distress, what's the best way to assess your risk of difficulty? There seem to be three important risk factors: (1) Poor hamstring flexibility and mobility, (2) Inadequate hamstring strength, and (3) Being generally out of shape. The first two factors place too much stress on the 'strings during the swing phase of the gait cycle, as we have mentioned. Being out of shape is also risky, because it increases hamstring fatigue during running. As we have already noted, tired strings do a poor job of controlling forward leg swing and are more likely to be overstrained during running.

Is a big calf a big risk factor?
And there may be yet another risk factor - the possession of large calf muscles and/or big feet. Although this may seem strange, it's clear that heftier calves or bulkier feet would place added stress on the strings. During forward leg swing, it would be harder to stop those big calves and feet once they got moving (ie, angular momentum would be greater). Since it's the job of the hamstrings to slow down that momentum, they would be considerably more stressed. To make matters worse, the hams would also be more fatigued, since each step would force them to slow down a heavier weight, compared to 'strings which were dealing with thin calves and tiny trotters.

A curious thing about athletic endeavours is that when an athlete establishes a goal of moving from point A to point B, with point A being a state of lower fitness and B representing higher fitness (or a new PB), the path from A to B is seldom trouble-free. However, the stretch of rough road or long detour which one encounters on the path is often not due to the inability to improve the physiological variables associated with fitness, all of which respond quite effectively to well-planned workouts. A temporarily 'washed-out road' is often the result of an anatomical/biomechanical weak link which leads to injury and stops training in its tracks. Frequently, this big bump is a hamstring problem, but if you carry out our stretches and exercises faithfully, you will keep your hamstrings in superb shape - and dramatically increase your chances of reaching your goal.

Text by Owen Anderson
Exercises by Walt Reynolds

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